DVTel buys ioimage

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J.--DVTel, a privately held maker of security management software, known for its iSoc product line, has acquired ioimage, a maker of product-based video analytics based in Israel. Terms of the deal were not released, but DVTel officials did say the deal involved transfer of company stock to ioimage's ownership.

Kim Robbins, director of marketing communications at DVTel, said the company's software will continue to support a number of analytics vendors, but that there's a natural fit between video management software and video analytics technology, and that these two companies have a history of successful installations together, which makes the acquisition a good fit.

"We got the leader," Robbins said. "We love their technology, video analytics on the edge. They have a great market name, very good market share." In November, ioimage announced that IMS Research had named them the market leader in the sales of "intelligent video devices," with a 13.1 percent market share . But "it's a very positive thing for both companies," Robbins emphasized. "They get the DVTel global presence, the big support organization, the big sales organization, just a big company with resources they can take advantage of."

Further, "we get their customer base. For example, remote monitoring--that wasn't something that we were playing in, and our customer base is going to be thrilled that possibility will be in the unified solution."

In a March interview with Security Systems News, ioimage CEO Zeev Farkarsh said, "Most of our business is coming from the mid-range market. I can't say the mass-market is really perfect for analytics yet; it's still not quite the mass market. We didn't achieve the hype yet. We're still on the way to the hype. We thought we'd get there 2009, 2010, but the slowdown might change that. But there's still the argument that we can save them some money."

And while the market may think of DVTel as being more focused on the enterprise market, Robbins said that's inaccurate. "We talk about big installations a lot, but we are in very small installations all over the place. They're just not as interesting [to send out press releases about] ... We're more than just a DVR replacement, but when we released Solus, it was to say you can have the best of the best, but a solution that's for that smaller business market space--eight or 16 or 32 cameras--and you get all of our expertise, but it's more of a packaged solution. The market demanded it, and it's still a very powerful DVTel solution."

"I'm a strong believer in the mass market," Farkarsh said. "I think the big projects are driven by the mass market, not the opposite. It reminds me of the strategy of Microsoft, not going to the giant companies like IBM, but going to the mass market, and they proved that was a good strategy. And I think the same thing will happen here as well. It's nice to have analytics that's affordable."

And Robbins said to expect other video management firms to follow DVTel's lead, if they haven't already. "Analytics don't typically get used without a [video management system]," she said. "I think we'll see a lot of this kind of consolidation. I think there will be a lot of VMS makers looking strongly at acquiring analytics companies."